Planting trees on farms and crofts

Integrating trees into your farm or croft could help your business to grow and become more resilient. That comes from both the value of the trees as a crop and the other positive impacts they can have on your farm business, such as:

• Shelter and shade for livestock

• Supporting biodiversity

• Generating income from timber and carbon credits

• Getting value from less productive land

• Supporting your soil

• Flood prevention

For more information on how trees can support your farm business, read our guide 'Why Trees?'.

The Small Woodland Loan Scheme can help cover initial costs before you receive your FGS payment.

The Farm Advisory Service also offers up to £1,600 for a specialist adviser to provide support with:

• woodland creation
• management
• conservation support

The Forestry Grant Scheme promotes joined-up ways to manage land. 

For instance, where trees and farming work together to offer various benefits. You can create agroforestry systems on grazing and arable land in several ways. 

These systems help produce trees for timber, biodiversity, or fruits and nuts. 

You can do this while still raising your livestock or growing crops.

The Sheep and Trees initiative aids upland livestock farmers in Scotland. 

It brings together grants for creating woodlands and building forest infrastructure. 

You can graze the woodland once the trees are mature enough to avoid browsing damage.

We want to encourage tenant farmers to consider tree planting. 

To that end, we worked with our partners and produced a case study showing different options.

The study used a real tenant farm to show the financial aspects of various woodland creation options.

The Croft Woodlands Project (CWP) offers free help to:

• crofters

• common grazings committees

• smallholders in the crofting counties

Advisers can help with:

• site assessments

• technical advice

• access to funding

Advice mainly covers new woodland planting but also includes managing existing woodlands. The CWP also offers training events and knowledge transfer sessions. 

The Woodland Expansion Advisory Group (WEAG) provides advice on the types of land that are best for tree planting in Scotland, whilst considering other land uses.

You will be expected to provide an assessment of the nature of the likely impacts from your activities. Including any proposed mitigation. For example, if your woodland creation proposal is likely to:

• have a significant impact on agricultural land

• affect the local land use balance with agriculture